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Indigenous Emerging Artist Program: Whess Harman

Sunday, March 31st from 10am to 4pm, emerging Indigenous artists are invited to join Whess Harman in the third workshop of the Indigenous Emerging Artist Program (IEAP).

Workshop: You Might Lose Some Beads in the Pit

A workshop for that perpetual party-pooper throwing down some Indigenous truths, the NDNs who can make a classroom go flat or set white fragility on fire, the feminist killjoy, for the writer's stuck on the first lyric of their latest punk song (hint: make it a patch) we will be coming together for a short selection of readings and pilfered youtube moments to hold a dialogue about the place of justified anger, grief and engaging with an ethos of refusal as a way of asserting one's spiritual, corporeal and political sovereignties as Indigenous people. And, we'll bead, patch and deck the heck out of a denim jacket together as a way of manifesting these dialogues into a functioning expression of Indigenized DIY.

Resistance starts in conversation of the land, even when it's locked under concrete, and a portion of this workshop will happen outside: please dress accordingly for the weather!

From Whess: this playlist is something that could easily be much longer but for brevity was pared down in the spirit of a mix-tape, dipped in the 90s brand nostalgia of running to the radio to hit record on tape decks, which I sometimes feel like we're still doing in a metaphorical way as radical resurgence manifests in our labors. This mix tape highlights moments in art, music, politics and film that have inspired my work, brought me to the dance floor, filled me with rage and joy and taught me that both matter and that becoming whole means embracing each part and finding that often, one point is not in direct opposition to the other. P.S. it was extremely difficult to not just make a Buffy super-list.

Artist Bio:Whess Harman is mixed race, trans/non-binary queer/2SQ artist from the Carrier Wit'at Nation and a graduate of the emily carr university’s bachelor of fine arts program. They are currently living and working on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in the Skwachays Lodge artist residency program.

Their on-going work includes beadwork and DIY strategies around punk aesthetics creating the “Potlatch Punk” series; a collection of modified and embellished jackets that blend traditional materials with punk and DIY approaches to discuss urban Indigenous identity, representations and understandings of wealth. Their poetry and text-based projects continually seek to explore the possibilities of reciprocal engagement in the dialogue and aim to subvert and confront the assumptions made in consuming Indigenous voices and work. They also sporadically draw a queer fantasy comic set in a post-capitalist future called, cryboy.

About the Indigenous Emerging Artist Program:Co-coordinated by Aboriginal Curator Eli Hirtle and France Trépanier, IEAP is an arts mentorship program that brings together emerging Indigenous artists, established professional artists, and elders. Running from February-March 2019, IEAP provides a crucial space for Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) emerging artists to strengthen and develop their voices, tell their stories, and widen their relationships to contemporary Indigenous art, culture and discourse.

Because an essential component of the IEAP is respect for and engagement with Indigenous methodologies and cultural protocols, the program will foreground the practice of understanding and responding to the IEAP host nation’s cultural protocols, specifically Coast Salish, Nuu-chah Nulth and Kwakwaka'wakw traditions. Learning and working within the territories of the group’s host nations will be guided by Lekwungen artist Bradley Dick Yuxweluptun and ‘Namgis Elder Gerry Ambers.

Who can participate:These workshops are designed for self-identified emerging artists of Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, and Metis) ancestry.

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Open Space respectfully acknowledges that we are on unceded First Nations territory. The City of Victoria and the surrounding areas lie on the territories of the Coast Salish and Lekwungen-speaking peoples, including the Esquimalt, Songhees, and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations.

Open Space is not wheelchair accessible and is accessed by a flight of 23 stairs. There are two gender inclusive washrooms, one multi-stall and one single stall with a urinal. If you have any other questions or concerns in regards to accessibility, please contact office@openspace.ca or 250-383-8833.

Open Space respectfully acknowledges that we are located on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. We seek to honour and uphold these ongoing relationships to the land and its stewards as we work on these territories.

Open Space is not wheelchair accessible and is accessed by a flight of 23 stairs with two landings. There are two gender inclusive washrooms, one multi-stall and one single stall with a urinal. If you have any other questions or concerns about accessibility, please contact office [at] openspace.ca or 250-383-8833.